Base for telephone booths



June 26 1945. c, KRUMRE|CH EjrAl. I 2,379,089

BASE FOR TELEPHONE BooTHs .c. L. .Manni-)CH www H. nf MEE/MN,

June .26, 1945- c. l.. KRuMRElcH Erm. 2,379,089

BASE FOR TELEPHONE BOOTHS Filed Dec.3. 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l ATTORNEYPatented June 26, 1945 BASE FOR TELEPHONE BOOTHS Charles L. Krumre'ich,Paterson, and Howard Meehan, Hillsdale, N. J.; said Krumrech assignor toBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, N. Y.,

a corporation of New York; said Meehan assigner to American Telephoneand Telegraph Company, a corporation of New York Application December s,1942, serial No. 467350 1 Claim.

This invention relates to booths and more specifically to a base for usein telephone booths and the like. A

The object of this invention is the provision of a base of the typeabove referred to which will 5 be simple, sturdy in construction, cheapto manufacture and in which with the exception of screws and othersecuring parts, the use of metallic material is avoided.

According to the booth base of this invention, a floor representing, forexample, a rectangular geometric-shaped figure is constructed of plywoodto which are integrated by screws and gluing, wooden sleeper members inturn integrated to each other at their adjacent ends at the rear cornersof the booth by gluing. The inner disposed surfaces of the sleepermembers are inclined relative to the plane of the floor to providebacking surfaces for covering plates of fibrous material extending vfromthe floor to a small distance beyond complemental supporting meanscoextensive of the sleeper members where these plates are secured attheir top edges to the walls of the booth, while angle bars are providedfor securing the adjacent ends of these plates to the complementalsupporting means and to the sleeper members.

Means formed with the'sleeper members reg-` istering with means formed'with the walls of the o booth serves as bearing points for these walls,"0 while means is provided at the front disposed end of two of thesleeper members for securing wall elements at the entrance of the booth.A plurality of means disposed on the under-side of the plywood floor atthe rear corners, the middle and front end portion thereof, formAbearing points on which the booth assembly rests, Means in the form ofa tread bar secured to the top surface of the floor is provided withmeans for securely holding the front edge of a covering to 40 p theplywood iioor of the booth and means in the form of moldings secured byscrews to the sleeper members is provided for collectively securing theother peripheral edges of the covering to the floor and the lowerdisposed ends of the covering plates to the inclined surfaces of thesleeper members, while means fitted in openings in the plywood iloorserves for securing the tread bar to the front disposed edge of thisiioor and to serve as bearing points for the front wall elements of thebooth.

Other novel features and advantages of the invention will appear fromthe following description and by the claim appended thereto, refer encebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Y Fig. l is a top View of the base shown with the floor covering `andmolding used for `securing the -covering to the oor and the coveringplates to the sleeper members;

Fig. 2 is an assembly viewkshown in perspective;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. l enlarged;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4 4 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 5 is a view similar tothat of Fig. 4 showing a modification `of thetread bar shown in that ligure.

The telephone booth base of this invention comprises a rectangularlyshaped plywood floor consisting of plies Yl, Y2, YB, Yli and YE bestseen in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 o-n which sleeper members sml, smZ and sm3 Aaremounted. rIghese sleeper members are as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of arelatively large cross-section so as to provide a large base surfacearea for integration of these members to the plywood floor to one sidethereof by similar screws SC shown in Fig. 3 and gluing, while thesleeper members are integrated to each other at their adjacent ends atthe left and right corners of the booth by gluing. The sleeper memberssml, sm2 and sm3 are each provided with similar shoulder portions :I:and :nl `as shown in Figs. l, 2 and 3 registering with similarly shapedportions formed at the lower ends of the side walls sw and swl and thelower end of the rear wall rw of the booth shown schematically by thedotted lines in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 to serve as bearing points for thesewalls, while a plurality of screws (not shown) engaging drilled holes h,hl, h2 and h3 secure the booth walls to the sleeper members.

The plywood iioor consisting of plies YI, Y2,

' etc. extends at the entrance of the booth a small distance beyond theends of the right and left disposed sleeper members sml and sm3 to servefor mounting a wooden tread bar B of. substantially rectangular crosssection shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 4 which in turn serve as bearing pointsfor the wall elements w, wl shown schematically in Figs. 1 and 2 formingthe entrance of the booth, while drilled holes as dl and dfi are engagedby screws (not shown) serving to secure the lower ends of the front wallelements w and wl to the sleeper members sml and sm3, the tread barbeing secured to the plywood floor by a plurality of screws inl shown inFigs. l, 2, 4 and 5 eX- tending through openings in the tread bar inengaged relation with T-nuts tn fitted in openings in a wooden strip elextending across -Athe booth and integrated to ply Y5 of the floor,while serving in cooperation with wooden spacer members z2, z3 at therear corners of the booth and the spacer member e4 at the center of thefloor to form bearing surfaces for the booth assembly.

On the top surface of the plywood floor is mounted a covering C whichmay be of linoleum or other fibrous material held securely thereon atthe front side of the booth by a chamfered portion BI of the tread bar Bas shown in Fig. 4 and along its rear and side disposed edges by similarwooden molding strips ST, while other pieces of molding STI, ST2 areprovided for securing the adjacent ends of covering CPI, CP2 and C133 tothe inclined surfaces of sleeper members sml, sm2 and sm3 and to thewooden strips :r1/I, xy2 and `13g/3 complemental to sleeper members smI,sm2 and sm3 respectively. These plates which are of linoleum or othersimilar fibrous material are held at their top disposed edges by similarmolding strips MI, M2 and M3 and screws cw directly engaging the rearWall and the side Walls of the booth, while the lower disposed edges ofplate covering CPI, CP2 and CP3 are held securely against the inclinedsurfaces of the sleeper members by the wooden molding strips ST securingthe covering C to the plywood licor as 'above described.

In this construction the cross-sectional form of the sleeper membersaffords a large base surface area for integrating these members to theplywood floor and thereby obtaining maximum rigidity of the base andbooth assembly, while the inclined surfaces of the sleeper members serveas backing elements for the linoleum covering plates CPI, CP2 and CP3converging to the normal inner surfaces or inner peripheries of thewalls SW, SWI and RW at which points the covering plates are secured tothe booth walls by the molding strips MI, M2 and M3 and screws CW asdescribed.

In the modication shown in Fig. 5, the front end of Hoor layer yI onwhich the linoleum oor covering C rests extends substantially invertical alignment relative to the edge of the chamfered portion BI ofthe tread bar B While the layers y2, 113 and g4 extend beyond the frontedge of layer yl Vto provide a support for the at portion of tread barB, while the layer 'g5 and the spacer member al serve to form a bearingsurface for the edge of the tread bar which is curvedalong the region ofthe booth door to facilitate the entrance to the booth.

Booth bases constructed according to the novel features of the inventionprovide a comparatively low step-up at the entrance of the booth, havebeen found to be cheap to manufacture, of sturdy construction, free fromrepairs and capable of long life in actual use while using a minimumamount of metallic material.

It is understood that minor changes may be made to the booth base ofthis invention without departing from the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A base for a telephone booth comprising a oor of non-metallic material,sleeper members of non-metallic material, each of said sleeper membershaving a base portion integrated with said floor and having a pluralityof bearing portions for supporting a wall of the booth, and each sleepermember having an interiorly disposed backing surface inclined relativeto the plane of said floor, and a complemental wooden strip resting onone of said bearing portions of each sleeper member and having a surfaceregistering with a surface of one of said walls and another surfaceregistering with the inclined backing surface of one of said sleepermembers for supporting an upwardly extending fibrous covering.

CHARLES L. KRUMREICH. HOWARD W. MEEHAN.

